Vignetting-tool.



No. 719,106. PATENTBDIAN. 27, 1903.

F. J. M. GERLAND. VIGNETTING TO OL APPLICATION FILED JUNE 9, 1902.

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FREDRIOK'J. M. GERLAND, OF EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY.

VlGNETTlNG TOOL.

SPECIFIGATLWN forming part of Letters Patent No. 719,106, dated January 27, 1903.

Application filed June 9, 1902. Serial No. 110,776. (No model.)

To to whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, FREDRICK J. M. GER- LAND, a citizen of the United States, residing at East Orange, Essex county, and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Viguetting-Tools, of which the following is a specification sufficient to enable others skilled in the art to which the invention appertaius to make and use the same.

lVhile applicable for use as an incisive tool for producing designs or certain prescribed effects upon engraved metallic plates-that is to say, for use in the production of original engravings-my improved tool is designed more particularly for softening or vignetting the edges of engravings, cuts, half-tone plates, &c., to avoid abrupt harshness of edge outline in printing. This vignetting has heretofore been effected in a degree by the use of either a roulette, a hammer, or a punch formed with parallel ridges, which were used to break up the lines of the picture or design at the edges. Since, however, these devices simply disturb and displace the metal, they create an objectionable bur, which takes the ink in printing, and thus the result sought is only partially accomplished. Furthermore, the use of these implements tends to buckle or spring the plate on its block, owing to the metal under pressure, thereby causing the plate to print unevenly. The other method heretofore employed in vignetting the edges of such plates has been to go over such edges with a graver having a plurality of cuttingpoints; but this is comparatively slow work and can only be done by a professional engraver or skilled workman.

The main object of my invention is to atford an implement that can be used not only by the skilled engraver, but also by the printer or unskilled workman, so that it shall be available in making ready, even after the blocked plate is locked in the printers form and on the press.

The invention consists, essentially, of a block having on one face a plurality of parallel longitudinal ridges, the end of the block being cut at an angle to form a plurality of cuttingpoints at the end of said ridges, and a handle extending from said block and beyond its cutting-points, so that the device may be used literally as a rake to remove superfluous metal from the edges of a plate in contradistinction to the old methods of compressing the metal by roulette, hammer, or punch or by plowing out the metal by means of an ordinary graver having a plurality of cutting-points.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view illustrating the use of my improved implement in toning down or reducing the edges of a half-tone printing-plate. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the tool, and Fig. 3 a front view of same. Fig. 4: is a view ofthe under side of the cutter-rake head.

The steel rake or cutter head A is formed with a series of cutting-teeth a a, preferably, though not necessarily, equidistant and uniform in outline. The teeth are also preferably arranged in a'convex curve, substantially as shown in Fig. 4, although this is not absolutely essential, since they may be arranged in a straight or even concave line, if desired, with substantially the same result. The advantage in arranging them convexly is that the corners of the tool are less likely to damage or injure the surface of the plate if the tool is carelessly handled, thus reducing the skill requisite in manipulation.

In use the cutting edge is applied to the edge of the plate to be reduced and drawn over the same a sufficient number of times to bevel it below the top or printing surface of the plate. By holding the tool inclined, as shown in Fig. 1, the cutting will be lightest toward the center of the plate and will not extend inward too far. By this means the worn or heavy printing, edge of a half-tone or other vignetted plate may be quickly and efiectively removed without even lifting the form in which it is included from the printing-press, thus conveniently accomplishing in a few minutes what would otherwise involve hours of labor not only in the use of a graver, but also in making ready. It is well known, for instance, that electrotypes are invariably more or less dishing or hollow in the center and that cuts in use sink in the middle, owing to the pressure to which they are subjected in the press. A pressman provided with my improved tool can readily remedy these defects without disturbing or removing the platea result impossible to attain with a graving-tool. Furthermore, the

difierence between drawing the cutting-teeth over the surface to be reduced and of pushing them through the metal, as with a graver, is found by actual experience to be of great practical importance. In any case the metal is necessarily plowed into deeply, making hard rigid lines, the pressure being exerted in the line of the graver and not being fully under control. In the other case the superfluous metal is simply raked off, more or less, according to the pressure applied to the handle of the rake, which handle from its posiiion in front of and above the cutting-teeth has atendency to draw the latter up and out of the metal, a tendency which is counteracted by the downward pressure exerted through the handle by the operator. As a result it is found that much more delicate and desirable results may be attained, since the cuttingrake may be quickly and gently drawn over the edges of a plate a number of times, imparting to it a soft mezzotint otherwise unattainable without the expenditure of much time and labor. As compared with the grooved roulettes, hammer, or punch instead ofjarnming down and bruising the metal and causing it to spring or buckle my tool cuts gitudinal ridges, the end of the block out at an angle to form a plurality of cutting-points at the end of said ridges, and a handle extending from said block and beyond said out ting-points as and for the purpose specified.

2. A vignetting-tool comprising a block having on one face a plurality of parallel longitudinal ridges, the end of the block out at an angle to form a plurality of cutting-points at the end of said ridges, and a handle extending from said block substantially parallel to said ridges and above and beyond the said cutting-points and in front of the same.

FREDRIOK J. M. GERLAND. Witnesses:

D. W. GARDNER, GEO WM. MIATT. 

